This invention relates in general to planting containers and in particular to a planting container for planting seeds or seedlings by a machine or by aerial drop.
Present methods of planting seeds or seedlings involve clearing the land of stubble and growth and plowing the soil into furrows to receive the seeds or seedlings which are planted mechanically by modified agricultural equipment or manually by grub hoes, spades or dibbles. Planting by these conventional methods may be made difficult by the nature of the terrain which may render the planting site inaccessible or difficult to traverse or cultivate.
Several types of containers and methods of planting have been devised for seeding remote or inaccessible areas, for example as in reforesting operations. Exemplary teachings of this kind are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,592,052 issued to J. C. McKenna, Jr., Apr. 8, 1952 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,651,772 issued to R. V. Garabedian, Mar. 28, 1972 wherein a seed or the roots of a seedling are frozen into a cube or a conically shaped block respectively. The cube or block may be planted manually, mechanically or by air drop. However, the freezing operation disclosed in these references may damage or even kill the seed or the seedling.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,273,284 issued to G. N. Anagnostou, Sept. 20, 1966 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,755,926 issued to J. Walters et al, Sept. 4, 1973 disclose planting containers for the seeding of remote or inaccessible terrain by air drop. While both the references disclose containers possessing sufficient structural strength to protect the seed and seedling and to achieve sufficient penetration of the soil, the relatively heavy mass of the container disclosed by Anagnostou and the use of a nonbiodegradable material for the container, such as plastic as taught by Walters et al, may inhibit the growth of the emplanted root structure. Additionally, the amount of water supplied by the Anagnostou container is relatively limited due to the size limitations of the water pocket formed therein. Furthermore, the container disclosed by Walters et al has no provision for a self contained water supply at all, but rather must depend upon an external source of moisture for watering the seedling.
The foregoing illustrates limitations of the known prior art. In view thereof, it would be advantageous to provide an alternative to the prior art.